uremalfandomcom-20200213-history
The Social Function of Science
}|0|Bernal, John Desmond (1939). The Social Function of Science. Routledge, 1939. MIT Press paperback ed., 1967. }} }} ---- ' PREFACE ' * In writing this book I have had the help of more people than I can name here. I owe very much to the criticisms and suggestions of my friends and colleagues, particularly H. D. Dickinson, I. Fankuchen, Julian Huxley, Joseph Needham, John Pilley and S. Zuckerman. (See: Social network) ---- ' AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ' ---- ' PART I: WHAT SCIENCE DOES ' ---- Introductory Historical The Existing Organization of Scientific Research in Britain Science in Education The Efficiency of Scientific Research The Application of Science Science and War International Science ---- ' PART II: WHAT SCIENCE COULD DO ' ---- The Training of the Scientist Science in Schools }|Science_in_Schools|At different stages in the educational process different changes are required. In schools the chief need is for a general change in the attitude towards science, which should be from the beginning an integral part and not a mere addition, often an optional addition, to the curriculum. Science should be taught not merely as a subject but should come into all subjects. Its importance in history and in modern life should be pointed out and illustrated. The old contrast, often amounting to hostility, between scientific and humane subjects need to be broken down and replaced by a scientific humanism. At the same time, the teaching of science proper requires to be humanized. The dry and factual presentation requires to be transformed, not by any appeal to mystical theory, but by emphasizing the living and dramatic character of scientific advance itself. Here the teaching of the history of science, not isolated as at present, but in close relation to general history teaching, would serve to correct the existing atmosphere of scientific dogmatism. It would show at the same time how secure are the conquests of science in the control they give over natural processes and how insecure and provisional, however necessary, are the rational interpretations, the theories and hypotheses put forward at each stage. Past history by itself is not enough, the latest developments of science should not be excluded because they have not yet passed the test of time. It is absolutely necessary to emphasize the fact that science not only has changed but is continually changing, that it is an activity and not merely a body of facts. Throughout, the social implications of science, the powers that it puts into men's hands, the uses they could make of them and those which they in fact do, should be brought out and made real by a reference to immediate experience of ordinary life. }} How such a method of teaching could become an integral part of general education is sketched by H. G. Wells' British Association address, "The Informative Content of Education," reprinted in World Brain (Mathuen, 1938). Hogben's Science for the Citizen would be an admirable text-book for such teaching. (p. 260) (p. 246) The Reorganization of Research Scientific Communication Popular Science World Encyclopaedia. -- }|World_Encyclopaedia|Behind these lies another prospect of greater and more permanent importance; that of an attempt at a comprehensive and continually revised presentation of the whole of science in its social context, an idea most persuasively put forward by H. G. Wells in his appeal for a World Encyclopaedia of which he has already given us a foretaste in his celebrated outlines. The encyclopaedic movement was a great rallying point of the liberal revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The real encyclopaedia should not be what the Encyclopaedia Britannica has degenerated into, a mere mass of unrelated knowledge sold by high-pressure salesmanship, but a coherent expression of the living and changing body of thought; it should sum up what is for the moment the spirit of the age: "We have been gradually brought to the pitch of imagining and framing our preliminary ideas of a federal world control of such things as communications, health, money, economic adjustments, and the suppression of crime. In all these material things we have begun to foresee the possibility of a world-wide network being woven between all men about the earth. So much of the World Peace has been brought into the range of -- what shall I call it? -- the general imagination. But I do not think we have yet given sufficient attention to the prior necessity, of linking together its mental organizations into a much closer accord than obtains at the present time. All these ideas of unifying mankind's affairs depend ultimately for their realization on mankind having a unified mind for the job. The want of such effective mental unification is the key to most of our present frustrations. While men's minds are still confused, their social and political relations will remain in confusion, however great the forces that are grinding them against each other and however tragic and monstrous the consequences." -- H. G. Wells' World Brain, pp. 39-40. "This World Encyclopaedia would be the mental background of every intelligent man in the world. It would be alive and growing and changing continually under revision, extension and replacement from the original thinkers in the world everywhere. Every university and research institution should be feeding it. Every fresh mind should be brought into contact with its standing editorial organization. And on the other hand, its contents would be the standard source of material for the instructional side of school and college work, for the verification of facts and the testing of statements -- everywhere in the world. Even journalists would deign to use it; even newspaper proprietors might be made to respect it." (p. 14) }} }|World_Encyclopaedia_1|The original French Encyclopaedia which did attempt these things was, however, made in the period of relative quiet when the forces of liberation were gathering ready to break their bonds. We have already entered the second period of revolutionary struggle and the quiet thought necessary to make such an effort will not be easy to find, but some effort is worth making because the combined assault on science and humanity by the forces of barbarism has against it, as yet, no general and coherent statement on the part of those who believe in democracy and the need for the people of the world to take over the active control of production and administration for their own safety and welfare. }} (pp. 306-307) The Finance of Science The Strategy of Scientific Advance Science in the Service of Man Science and Social Transformation The Social Function of Science }|The_Social_Function|At the end of our inquiry we come closer to being able to define what is the contemporary, and what may be the future, function of science in society. We have seen science as an integral part both of the material and economic life of our times and of the ideas which guide and inspire it. Science puts into our hands the means of satisfying our material needs. It gives us also the ideas which will enable us to understand, to co-ordinate, and to satisfy our needs in the social sphere. Beyond this science had something as important though less definite to offer: a reasonable hope in the unexplored possibilities of the future, an inspiration which is slowly but surely becoming the dominant driving force of modern thought and action. }} (p. 408) The Major Transformations of History }|The_Major_Transformations|To see the function of science as a whole it is necessary to look at it against the widest possible background of history. Our attention to immediate historical events has, up till very recently, blinded us to the understanding of its major transformations. Mankind is, after all, a late emergence on the scene of terrestrial evolution, and the earth itself is a late by-product of cosmic forces. Up till now human has only undergone three major changes: the foundation first of society and then of civilization, both of which occurred before the dawn of recorded history, and that scientific transformation of society which is now taking place and for which we have as yet no name. }} (p. 408) Society and Civilization. -- }|Society_and_Civilization|The first revolution was the foundation of society, by which man became different from the animals and found, through the new habit of transmission of experience from generation to generation, a means of advance altogether faster and more sure than the haphazard evolutionary struggle. The second revolution was the discovery of civilization, based on agriculture, and bringing with it a manifold development of specialized techniques, but above all, the social forms of the city and trade. Through these mankind as a whole was removed from parasitic dependence on nature and a certain section of mankind liberated altogether from the task of food production. The discovery of civilization was a local event. It had acquired nearly all its essential features by the sixth millennium B.C., but only at its centre, somewhere between Mesopotamia and India. We cannot trace in the succeeding thousands of years right up to the Renaissance and the beginning of our own times any substantial change in the quality of civilization. The whole of this period of recorded history marks only relatively small cultural and technical changes, and these, for the most part, of a cyclic character. Culture after culture rises and decays, but each one, though different, is not essentially in advance of the one before. The real imperceptible advance is only in area. Every breakdown of the civilization internally and through barbarian invasions meant in the long run, after a period of confusion, the spread of that civilization to the barbarians. By the end of the period all the easily cultivated lands of the world were civilized. }} (pp. 408-9) The Scientific Revolution: The Role of Capitalism. -- }| The_Scientific_Revolution|It is apparent to us now, though it was certainly not then, that by the middle of the fifteenth century something new was beginning. We have come to look on the Renaissance as presaging the rise of capitalism, but it was not until the eighteenth century that any fundamental change was generally recognized. By then, through the application of science and invention, new possibilities were available to mankind which were likely to have an even larger effect on its future than those of agriculture and the techniques of early civilization. It is only recently that we have been able to separate in our minds the development of capitalist enterprise from that of science and the general liberation of human thought. Both seemed to be inextricably connected parts of Progress, but at the same time, paradoxically, their appearance was greeted as evidence that man was returning to his natural state, freed from the arbitrary restrictions of religion or feudal authority. We now see that though capitalism was essential to the early development of science, giving it, for the first time, a practical value, the human importance of science transcends in every way that of capitalism, and, indeed, the full development of science in the service of humanity is incompatible with the continuance of capitalism. }} (p. 409) The Social Implications of Science. -- }|The_Social_Implications|Science implies a unified and co-ordinated and, above all, conscious control of the whole of social life; it abolishes, or provides the possibility of abolishing, the dependence of man on the material world. Henceforth society is subject only to the limitations it imposes on itself. There is no reason to doubt that this possibility will be grasped. The mere knowledge of its existence is enough to drive man on until he has achieved it. The socialized, integrated, scientific world organization is coming. It would be absurd, however, to pretend that it had nearly arrived or that it will come without the most severe struggles and confusion. We must realize that we are in the middle of one of the major transition periods of human history. Our most immediate problem is to ensure that the transition is accomplished as rapidly as possible, with the minimum of material, human and cultural destruction. }} (pp. 409-410) The Tasks of Science in the Transition Period. -- }|The_Tasks_of_Science|Although science will clearly be the characteristic feature of the third stage of humanity, its importance will not be fully felt until this stage has been definitely established. Belonging to an age of transition we are primarily concerned with its tasks, and here science is but one factor in a complex of economic and political forces. Our business is with what science, here and now, has to do. The importance of science in the struggle, moreover, depends largely on the consciousness of this importance. Science, conscious of its purpose, can in the long run become a major force in social change. Because of the powers which it holds in reserve it can ultimately dominate the other forces. But science, unaware of its social significance, becomes a helpless tool in the hands of forces driving it away from the directions of social advance, and, in the process, destroying its very essence, the spirit of free inquiry. To make science conscious of itself and its powers it must be seen in the light of the problems of the present and of a realizable future. It is in relation to these that we have to determine the immediate functions of science. }} (p. 410) Preventible Evils. -- }|Preventible_Evils|We have in the world to-day a number of palpable material evils -- starvation, disease, slavery, and war -- evils which in previous times were accepted as part of nature or as the actions of stern or malevolent gods, but which now continue solely because we are tied to out-of-date political and economic systems. There is no longer any technical reason why everyone should not have enough to eat. There is no reason why anyone should do more than three or four hours of disagreeable or monotonous work a day, or why they should be forced, by economic pressure, to do even that. War, in a period of potential plenty and ease for all, is sheer folly and cruelty. The greater part of disease in the world to-day is due directly or indirectly to lack of food and good living conditions. All these are plainly remediable evils, and no one can feel that science has been properly applied to human life until they are swept off the face of the earth. But that is only the beginning. There are a number of apparently irremediable evils, such as disease or the necessity for any kind of unpleasant work at all, which we have very good reason for believing could be dealt with if a serious and economically well-supported scientific drive were made to discover their causes and eliminate them. The starving of research of potential human value is but one step removed from the starving of man. }} (p. 410) Discovery and Satisfaction of Needs. -- }|Discovery_and_Satisfaction|These are all, however, but negative aspects of the application of science. It is plainly not enough to remove as much of present evil as lies in our power. We must look to producing new good things, better, more active and more harmonious ways of living, individually and socially. So far science has hardly touched these fields. It has accepted the crude desires of a pre-scientific age without attempting to analyse and refine them. It is the function of science to study man as much as nature, to discover the significance and direction of social movements and social needs. The tragedy of man has too often lain in his very success in achieving what he imagined to be his objects. Science, through its capacity for looking ahead and comprehending at the same time many aspects of a problem, should be able to determine far more clearly which are the real and which the phantastic elements of personal and social desires. Science brings power and liberation, just as much by showing the falsity and impossibility of certain human aims, as by satisfying others. In so far as science becomes the conscious guiding force of material civilization, it must increasingly permeate all other spheres of culture. }} (p. 411) Science and Culture The Transformation of Science Science as Communalism. -- }|Science_as_Communalism|Already we have in the practice of science the prototype for all human common action. The task which the scientists have undertaken -- the understanding and control of nature and of man himself -- is merely the conscious expression of the task of human society. The methods by which this task is attempted, however imperfectly they are realized, are the methods by which the humanity is most likely to secure its own future. In its endeavour, science is collaboration. In science men have learned consciously to subordinate themselves to a common purpose without losing the individuality of their achievements. Each one knows that his work depends on that of his predecessors and colleagues, and that it can only reach its fruition through the work of his successors. In science men collaborate not because they are forced to by superior authority or because they blindly follow some chosen leader, but because they realize that only in this willing collaboration can each man find his goal. Not orders but advice, honestly and disinterestedly given, can his work succeed, because such advice expresses as near as may be the inexorable logic of the material world, stubborn fact. Facts cannot be forced to our desires, and freedom comes by admitting this necessity and not by pretending to ignore it. These are the things that have been learned painfully and incompletely in the pursuit of science. Only in the wider tasks of humanity will their full use be found. }} (pp. 415-416) ---- ' APPENDICES ' ---- ; Paging : based on the MIT Press paperback edition. Notes Sociology of science ; Wikipedia: J. D. Bernal * In 1939, Bernal published The Social Function of Science, probably the earliest text on the sociology of science. Scientific revolution in point : The Scientific Revolution ; Wikipedia: Scientific revolution * Philosopher and historian Alexandre Koyré coined the term scientific revolution in 1939 to describe this epoch.* ** * Shapin, Steven (1996). The Scientific Revolution. ; Wikipedia: Alexandre Koyré * According to Koyré, it was not the experimental or empirical nature of Galileo's and Newton's discoveries that carried the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, but a shift in perspective, a change in theoretical outlook toward the world. Koyré strongly criticized what he called the "positivist" notion that science should only discover given phenomena, the relations between them and certain laws that would help to describe or predict them. To Koyré science was, at its heart, theory: an aspiration to know the truth of the world, of uncovering the essential structures from which phenomena, and the basic laws that relate them, spring. ** Études galiléennes, Paris: Hermann, 1939. This may be where he probably coined "scientific revolution" so coincidentally with Bernal (1939). [http://dannyreviews.com/h/Scientific_Revolution.html One reviewer of Steven Shapin (1996) The Scientific Revolution.] was surprised to learn that the phrase "the scientific revolution" probably wasn't coined until 1939. * Koyré influenced major European and American philosophers of science, most significantly Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend. In 1961 he was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society. What a dual coincidence of Koyré with Bernal in coining "scientific revolution" in 1939 and again with Joseph Needham, a friend of Bernal's, in being awarded the same medal in 1961. ; The Structure of Scientific Revolutions : Thomas Kuhn (1961) ; The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution : C. P. Snow (1959), Bernal's friend ; Science and Civilisation in China : Joseph Needham (1954-2008), Bernal's friend * "Needham's Grand Question", also known as "The Needham Question", is why China had been overtaken by the West in science and technology, despite its earlier successes. * Nathan Sivin, one of Needham's collaborators ... suggested that the "Needham question", as a counterfactual hypothesis, was not conducive to a useful answer: "It is striking that this question -- Why didn't the Chinese beat Europeans to the Scientific Revolution? -- happens to be one of the few questions that people often ask in public places about why something didn't happen in history. It is analogous to the question of why your name did not appear on page 3 of today's newspaper." * On his return to the west China he was asked by Julian Huxley to become the first head of the Natural Sciences Section of UNESCO in Paris, France. In fact it was Needham who insisted that Science should be included in the organisation's mandate at an earlier planning meeting. (See: Social network) * In 1961, Needham was awarded the George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society Coincidentally with Koyré! and in 1966 he became Master of Gonville and Caius College. In 1984, Needham became the fourth recipient of the J.D. Bernal Award, awarded by the Society for Social Studies of Science. Information revolution ; Wikipedia: Information revolution * Many competing terms have been proposed that focus on different aspects of this societal development. The British polymath crystallographer J. D. Bernal (1939) introduced the term "scientific and technical revolution" in his book The Social Function of Science in order to describe the new role that science and technology are coming to play within society. * Daniel Bell (1980) challenged this theory and advocated Post Industrial Society, which would lead to a service economy rather than socialism. Many other authors presented their views, including Zbigniew Brzezinski (1976) with his "Technetronic Society". Social network ; J. D. Bernal * C. P. Snow (friend) * Joseph Needham (friend) ** Julian Huxley (friend, boss at UNESCO) * Julian Huxley (friend) ** Aldous Huxley (brother) *** H. G. Wells (role model) ** Andrew Huxley (brother) *** George Wells (colleague at UCL) ** T. H. Huxley (grandfather) *** H. G. Wells (student) ** H. G. Wells (co-author) *** George Wells (son, co-author) ** George Wells (co-author) * Sir William Bragg (teacher) * Max Perutz (research student, Nobel prize) ** Francis Crick (Nobel prize) *** James D. Watson (Nobel prize co-winner) *** Maurice Wilkins (Nobel prize co-winner) * Rosalind Franklin (colleague at Birkbeck) ** Francis Crick, et al. (informed) * Dorothy Hodgkin (student, Nobel prize) * Margot Heinemann (lover) * Martin Bernal (son) ** Margaret Gardiner (mother, Mrs. Bernal) *** Sir Alan Gardiner (father, Egyptologist) * Solly Zuckerman (co-adviser of science) ** Lord Louis Mountbatten (advisee) * Pablo Picasso (friend) Footnotes ; Quotes * ; Comments * ; References * * Eugene Gargield (2007). "Tracing the Influence of JD Bernal on the World of Science through Citation Analysis." Bernal Symposium on Protein Crystallisation, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Monday 3 - Tuesday 4 September 2007. http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/bernaldublin0907.pdf * Eugene Garfield (2007). "On the Shoulders of Giants - Tracing the impacts of information retrieval systems on science policy." 60th Anniversary Celebration of Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Oak Ridge, TN. September 18, 2007. http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/oakridge0907.pdf * Eugene Garfield (1982). "J.D. Bernal - The Sage of Cambridge: 4S Award memorializes His contributions to the Social Studies of Science." Current Contents, No. 19, p.5-17, May 10, 1982. (Essays of an Information Scientist, Vol:5, p.511-523, 1981-82.) http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v5p511y1981-82.pdf